Decent ‘Dog’ debut for CBS

Fox dances to win in young adults demo

On a fairly quiet night, CBS canine competition “Greatest American Dog” opened to passable numbers Thursday while Fox prevailed among young adults thanks to “So You Think You Can Dance.”

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Greatest American Dog” won the 8 o’clock hour with a 2.1 rating/8 share in adults 18-49 and 9.5 million viewers overall — roughly the same demo delivery for the premiere of “Pirate Master” in the time period last summer for CBS. It was up against repeats on ABC and NBC, and edged out a firstrun episode of Fox’s quizshow “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” (2.0/7 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall).

Fox moved to the lead in key demos at 9 o’clock with “So You Think You Can Dance” (3.0/9 in 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall), while CBS repeat drama “CSI” (2.2/7 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) ran second in demos and first in total viewers. NBC averaged a 2.1/6 in 18-49 and 5.0 million viewers overall from 9 to 11 p.m. with “Last Comic Standing.”

At 10 o’clock, “Last Comic” was the broadcast leader among young adults (2.2/7 in 18-49), followed by CBS’ “Swingtown” (1.7/5 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) and ABC’s “Hopkins” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall), which built by 67% on its weak lead-in from a “Grey’s Anatomy” repeat (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.1 million viewers overall). Ratings weren’t available for USA’s second-season premiere of drama “Burn Notice,” which figured to be competitive in some categories at 10 o’clock.